Steve Cherundolo (L) and Clint Dempsey (R) of the US fight for the ball with England's Shaun Wright-Phillips during a 2010 World Cup Group C soccer match at Royal Bafokeng stadium in Rustenburg June 12, 2010. (Marcos Brindicci / Reuters)

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06.12.10

The Ghosts of England's Soccer Past

Ghosts of 1966 haunted this Brit-born American citizen, especially when poor Butterfingers Green missed a ball Gordon Banks would surely have scooped up.

There were ghosts on ABC's presentation of the U.S. versus England. I saw Nobby Stiles, George Cohen, and the giant Jack Charlton winning every ball in midfield and distributing beautifully. The ghosts haunted me because, in 1966, that glorious year for English soccer, I was on the ground to see England win through to the final, with a memorable goal in the semifinal against Portugal by Bobby (now Sir Charlton) that I'll swear was a single bullet from 60 yards out, more likely 30. On this encounter with the U.S., though, England lost too many balls midfield, but all credit to a vastly improved U.S. team. It doesn't have the ball-player stars England has—Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard, Johnson, say—but it did play as a team. And, of course, it had a brave and skilled goalkeeper. What can one say of poor Butterfingers Green who fumbled an easy first-half shot and so deprived England of a 1-0 win? Now, had England swapped goalkeepers with the U.S., the result would have been different.

Harold Evans, author of two histories of America, just published his memoir, My Paper Chase. Editor at large of The Week, he was editor of The Sunday Times from 1967-81 and The Times from 1981-82, founding editor of Condé Nast Traveler, and president of Random House Trade Group from 1990-97.